Ever since upgrading to PM3 some time ago, I have not been able to do my daily backups. I get the error: "Backup failed, please check available space at: C:\Program files\Pocomail3\pocobackup\PocoMail.bak"

I made a copy of this directory and deleted everything in C:\Program files\Pocomail3\pocobackup, but still no luck. I am really interested in Barca, because I am shopping for PIM software, and I love the fact that mail is integrated, but if I can't import/restore, I lose a major feature.

Hmmm - I never set anything on it. I just checked the properties and the 'read only' box isn't checked.

I am so frustrated -- my PM3 was really hosed. I finally got everything back except a large MB is now only up to 6/5/04 emails.

All I want to do is give Barco a try, but after reading up a bit, I might be just asking for more trouble...

I cannot get anything to import into Barca -- or "restore" from PM3, or copy directories and ini files from PM3 to Barca.

I have used PM since the early days - end of 1998 I think, and it has been wonderful. I wasn't so happy with PM3, because there are a lot of "extra" MBs that show up and the aforementioned backup problem, but overall, I love PM!

Goose wrote:I cannot get anything to import into Barca -- or "restore" from PM3, or copy directories and ini files from PM3 to Barca.

I know you've checked, but this really smacks of a Read Only permission problem. I would go to C:\Program files\Pocomail3 in Explorer, set Read Only (and apply down the directory structure) and then repeat, unsetting Read Only.

I did as mikecarey suggested (apply 'read only' then set back to having it unchecked).

No luck. As always, the error is "check available space". I used to do a backup on exit with all prior versions, no problem. But I have never been able to get through a backup with V3.0. I have considered going back to the last 2.x version, but don't want to add to my current email woes. (I had an explorer window crash yesterday, unrelated to PM, but whacked PM somehow and have been tweaking to get it all back!)

1) Open a command prompt (DoS window).
2) enter 'dir' (no quotes)
3) Check the free disk space reported at the bottom. It should say something like "##,###,### bytes free" where "#" is the actual number of bytes. This should be at least twice your backup needs.

Thanks, I asked because you couldn't copy anything. That's really strange.
Have you tried already with a clean install?
Compose some messages in it and store them in draft and try to do the backup.
If this doesn't work, I'm sure something got broken in your Windows or HD.

For a quick check, I did try to backup to another directory before, but I just retried to be sure --- still no luck "check disk space" error.

FWIW, I do have the trial of Barca installed with a couple test messages in it. The interface is very similar to PM, not sure how the programming is related, but... I did a full back up in Barca without problems.

That said, I DO have a ton of email volume in my PM. Could it simply be too much data to back up - overflowing some set limit in PM??

Well, I am not quite sure what you mean by "availability of the backup directory", since I cleared it to... empty and still had the problem. This problem has been here since I installed PM3, it was just after yesterday's glitch that I thought... eeek! better make sure I can backup my email daily. I do tape backups of my hard drive, but not daily.

Barca backup worked perfectly, so not sure what is up.

For now, here is my solution:
Run Barca as my primary client, and checked "leave msgs on server". Then after Barca, go to PM3 and download the msgs for a secondary backup. This way my server won't get clogged up, I can make sure Barca will work for me, and if it doesn't, nothing lost and no messing around trying to move/import/restore msgs back to PM.

I know. I know... kind of taking the lazy way out for the moment, but to tell the truth, I am too enticed by the features of Barca to just let it lie there.

I will follow up on the DOS command suggestions earlier in this thread though and will report if I find anything.

I've got the same problem. I moved from Poco to Barca and have not so far been able to backup in Barca. I get the same message about lack of space and am desperate to sort it out. Any more leads on this one? I mailed support and they said they thought an update could sort it out - which is fine except I have the latest version of Barca.